Perhaps you are newly divorced and wondering how soon you will start receiving the court ordered payment. Maybe you are debating a dissolution of marriage and are curious as to how soon after everything takes effect that you potentially will need to start paying maintenance. Payments after the marriage has ended is often a top priority question for our clients. Let us discuss alimony in further detail.

What Is Alimony?

Alimony is also known as spousal support, financial support, and spousal maintenance. This is an amount that is paid by one spouse to another spouse after they have divorced. This is put into place in order to maintain the “standard of living of the marriage.” In short, you should essentially be able to continue living outside of the marriage the same way that you were living inside the marriage. That in turn means that if one spouse is making a substantial amount more than the other spouse, then perhaps alimony should be paid to the spouse that is not making as much in order to help them on their way.

Of all the family law issues, those involving child custody are often the most difficult and inflammatory. This is especially true in situations where abuse, neglect, and/or parental alienation exist. There are, however, considerations that family court judges use to help determine child custody, even in the most difficult of divorces and custody battles. It is important to understand what these factors are, how they may apply to your particular situation, and where to best find help if you are concerned about your child custody case.

Possible Custody Arrangements

Whether the parents of a child are divorcing or unwed, matters of child custody are determined by a California family law judge. The judge examines evidence presented by both parents and/or their attorneys. However, all custody cases start with the presumption that joint custody – or the equal involvement of both parents – is in the child’s best interest. If it is determined that this is not the most suitable arrangement, other custody arrangements may be considered, including:

Divorce is typically a stressful experience. Anxiety can build from the finality of the marriage, the financial situation, and any number of additional factors. One stress factor that may be alleviated with more information is what to expect inside of the courtroom. For many, the fear of the unknown is one of their biggest sources of anxiety. While they may differ slightly, courtrooms generally have many similarities.

Courthouse Security

Courthouses are government buildings. Therefore, most courthouses have security measures, like a metal detector that you will walk through to announce any prohibited weapons. You will need to remove anything from your person that contains metal before going through, including:

Americans hear it from everywhere: half of all marriages end in divorce. It is recited by the media, pop culture, and even expert analysts. There is, however, emerging evidence that suggests the divorce rate may not be quite as high as Americans are told. In fact, a 2014 publication from The New York Times reported that divorce rates are actually on the decline. And, more recently, an analyst determined that the rate of divorce varies based on a number of factors, including education level, ethnicity, and gender.

Why the Myth Exists

According to the analyst, the myth that half of all marriages end in divorce stems from bad math. He explained that most analysts divide the number of divorces of any given year by the number of marriages for that year. If, however, it was taken into account that the people who married that same year are not actually the same people who divorced that year, the numbers would come out quite differently. And, if the data is examined over a longer period of time, those numbers change even more. The New York Times article from 2014 estimated that about a third of all marriages end in divorce; the analyst says the data is even more complex.

A dissolution of marriage, also known as a divorce, is a very emotional situation. Regardless of whether it is joy, anger, sadness or stress, both sides are very likely to be running on an extreme version of whatever their emotional reaction is. Unfortunately, emotions tend to cloud our logical thought processes, making subjects like dividing up the property even more difficult. Yet, countless couples overcome these obstacles on a daily basis, and we assure you that you will, too.

Your Checklist

Every divorce is different, however, the property list is nearly always fairly similar. While your actual checklist may vary from the following list slightly, some of the major highlights could still be present. Here is a list of assets that divorcing spouses should discuss in terms of how they are willing to divide them: